Founded in 1958 by professors from St. John's College, Key School engages children from 2.5 years of age through grade 12 in a progressive, coeducational, college-preparatory, day program on its picturesque 15-acre campus located 4 miles from downtown Annapolis.

Key's program is designed to develop independent thinkers, creative innovators, effective collaborators, tenacious problem-solvers, and articulate leaders while cultivating in its students a deep sense of purpose, accountability and intrinsic motivation.

Key School's program is strengthened by the support of current parents, faculty and staff, alumni, grandparents, parents of
alumni, and other friends of the School who make Key their philanthropic priority, each year.

Current Applicants

Free and open to the public, Tiny Explorers at Key is a workshop designed to engage children, between 2 and 3.5 years of age, and their parents in authentic hands-on exploratory work.

This fall, Tiny Explorers is "shifting gears" from Key's Nature Explore Classroom to our newly renovated Build It Lab located in the First School's Treetop Science Room.

Guided by Key faculty members, parents and children will enjoy creating limitless designs and configurations using the Magnetic Wall and exploring options in engineering using Rigamajig's large scale building kit.

Designed to spark a genuine early interest in tinkering, making and engineering, Key's Build It Lab beckons young children to take things apart, put them back together, design, develop a plan and creative problem solve. This purposeful play engages children in thinking with their hands, it fosters intrinsic motivation and is the foundation to Key's engineering initiatives.

Fall 2017 Dates

As space is limited to 8 children each week, we ask that you select only 1 workshop per child.

Tiny Explorer Workshop Activities

Magnetic WallVisitors to the Build it Lab will enjoy creating limitless designs and configurations using the magnet wall. This interactive board challenges children to experiment with gravity as they arrange rings and ramps to create pathways for balls and cars to travel on. Children realize through their own experimentation how to move objects down a ramp or over a bridge.

RigamajigLittle engineers will love playing with the Rigamajig which is a large scale building kit. This collection of wooden planks, wheels, pulleys, nuts, bolts and rope allows children to follow their curiosity through play, while learning 21st Century skills. Through playing they think 3 dimensionally, create physically and work collaboratively.

BlocksChildren, like Engineers, problem solve during block play. The Build It Lab is filled with all kinds of building blocks and materials which provide opportunities for children to explore the never ending cycle of building, evaluating, knocking down and rebuilding.

Sensory MaterialsThe objective of playful sensory exploration is to learn about the properties of materials such as kinetic sand and play dough and engage with them in purposeful ways. Young children enjoy and learn to embrace process over outcome through sensory play.